


Indestructibility Is Only Skin Deep

by ShutUpFoxFace



Category: Henry Danger (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Bisexual Ray, Gen, This is non-canon AU, it leads nowhere, mostly - Freeform, this is clean and innocent kiddos, young!ray
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2019-09-14 03:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16905027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShutUpFoxFace/pseuds/ShutUpFoxFace
Summary: When the Time Jerker manages to blow himself up while de-aging Ray, the gang has to deal with a 14-year old Ray with a lot of issues, while hoping that either Time Jerker can recover and rebuild the machine, or that Schwoz can reverse whatever the machine did.





	1. SCHWOZ!

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm not going to lie, this was originally intended to be a parody type thing, it was supposed to be a ridiculous crack fic that made fun of some underlying creepiness in the show, but the more I went to plan it out, the more sincere it got and I wanted to see Ray presented in a way that emphasized that he's only invincible on the outside. So. This will likely contain angst. Good luck, and I hope you like this first chapter.

“SCHWOZ!”

Charlotte nearly jumped out of her chair when she heard Henry scream, but she had no clue where him, Ray, or Schwoz were. The… eccentric… inventor had run off to do something involving ‘poopets’ about an hour earlier, right after Henry and Ray had left to fight the Time Jerker. She hadn’t seen him since, and despite Henry having already done so, she took a moment to yell, “Schwoz! Henry needs you!”

It wasn’t until Henry came down the tube that she could see why.

“Wh-... Where’s Ray,” she asked, looking at the oddly familiar brown-haired teen that Henry was barely managing to carry. 

“This is Ray.”

As soon as it sunk in, the meaning of what Henry had just said, she met his eyes for only a moment, and then, once again, yelled, “SCHWOZ!”

A moment later, the man sauntered in with a goat. “What? What is so important you interrupt my goat time?”

But right then, the amount of fear, confusion, and downright weirdness surrounding this young teen who was now laying on the floor overruled the amount surrounding Schwoz’s question.

“Henry, you can’t bring people down here! And where’s Ray?

“That… is Ray, Schwoz,” Henry said, his concern showing through in just four words. “The Time Jerker had some sort of de-ager. I guess he thought if he turned Ray young enough, not only would he not have powers, but he’d be that much easier to… And… And when it got to 14, the machine blew up. Ray and Time Jerker were both flung into the wall behind the machine. Ray’s fine, but Time Jerker’s in the hospital.”

“That’s fine, he’s a villain,” Schwoz said, accepting the carrot the goat somehow delivered to him, and taking a bite from it.

“No, it’s not. The blueprints and manual for the machine caught fire, and if Time Jerker gets amnesia or… Ray will be like this, possibly forever.”

“Guys,” Charlotte said, sounding alarmed, and when Schwoz and Henry looked down, the young boy was looking up at them.


	2. In A Generation I Don't Belong In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray is awake, he's fourteen, and he's very very confused.

Ray was squinting more than actually looking. Though the lights in the room were dimmed, it was still bright enough that he winced and covered his eyes. As his eyes adjusted to the light he moved his hand to see what appeared to be two teenagers and a middle-aged man. And also a goat, which Ray almost found weirder than the humans above him. “Oh, okay, this is a dream. Absolutely. The goat gave it away.”  
The three humans in the room jumped back, which only confirmed his theory that he was dreaming, and the blond teenage boy one seemed to be the most shaken. “Oh thank goodness, Ray, you’re alive.”  
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? Also, what _is_ up with the goat?”  
“Oh, Schwoz brought him here, I guess.”  
“...Who’s Schwoz?”  
“Oh, come on, Ray, you know who I am,” the man, apparently Schwoz, said, taking his goat’s leash.  
Young Ray replied, “No, not really… And where am I?”  
Everyone got really quiet for a moment, and finally, the girl said, “Ray, stop joking.”  
“What? No, seriously, where am I?”  
“Oh no.”

Henry paced the floor, arms crossed. “Alright, so what’s the last thing you remember?”  
“Well, when I went to sleep last night… I said goodnight to my parents and went to bed. I don’t know? Is there some significance to that?”  
“Yes. What year was it?”  
The much younger Ray replied, “1995. Why?”  
“Ray, um… It’s 2016 now.”  
The kid looked at Henry weird. “No. No, there’s no way. That kind of thing doesn’t just happen.”  
“Well…” Henry pulled out his phone.  
“Woah, what the hell is that thing?”  
“That’s… Oh. Right. This is a cell phone,” Henry said.  
“Oh my gosh, really? The… the future looks so cool!”  
Henry looks down. “I was just going to show you the date on my phone calendar.”  
“There’s calendars in phones now?!”  
“Okay, Henry,” Charlotte said. “We don’t want to just overload him. Schwoz, that information infuser thing… Any chance we can use that on him?”  
“What? No! I don’t want any machines used on me. I just woke up… twenty-one years after I went to sleep. And you guys still haven’t explained how you know me.”  
Charlotte and Henry sat at the booth with him. “Well,” Henry started, “yesterday for me, and this morning, I guess, you were 35, and my boss. You’re a superhero called Captain Man, and I’m your sidekick, Kid Danger. When we left this morning, we went to fight a villain that likes to mess with time. He ran you through some de-ager, and it exploded. You’re fine, although you’re much younger… Um…”  
“I’m 14.”  
“Yeah. 14. Anyways, the explosion landed him in the hospital with some memory loss, I guess. I thought you’d remember everything when you woke up, but I guess not.”  
“Well, how long will it take for me to get those memories back or return to normal?”  
“We called the hospital to ask about the villian, The Time Jerker,” Charlotte said. “At best, he’ll recover enough to rebuild the machine in six months.”  
Ray’s eyes widened. “Well, isn’t there any other way?”  
“Schwoz?”  
“It’ll take me a few months to experiment to re-age you.”  
Ray rested his head on the table. “This is great. I’m a 14 year old kid who’s supposed to be 35, in a generation I don’t belong in.”  
“Many modern teens would agree with you, there,” Henry said, chuckling, but when nobody else started laughing, he stopped.  
“Where am I going to stay,” Ray asked, getting up to pace. “I don’t know where my parents live now, even if they are alive, and I only know you guys!”  
“Well, I think you normally slept here.”  
“Harry or Harvey or whatever your name was--”  
“Henry.”  
“Yeah, I’m FOURTEEN! I’m not staying in some weird cold underground base filled with weapons. Especially not when I’m twenty-one years behind the technology, and language, and everything else. What am I going to do?!”


	3. Jasper's Parents Hate Kids, We Know.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray has to stay at Henry's house and start using a different name. Schwoz ponders the current events as he enrolls Ray in Swellview High. Ray takes the school news not-so-well. And Charlotte knows Schwoz's inventions better than he himself does.

“This isn’t going to work.”  
“Well, after Courtney from Fibberton, my mom won’t let me have anyone over, and he’s a boy, so she really wouldn’t like it.”  
“Why can’t he just stay with Jasper,” Henry asked, but Jasper wasn’t there yet, and his parents didn’t like kids. “Oh. Right. Never mind. I guess I really am the only option. But what do I tell them? I can’t just say ‘oh hey, guys, my boss got de-aged and can’t remember anything so now he’s 14 and needs a place to stay’, they’d figure out I’m Kid Danger.”  
“Or send you to a nuthouse,” Schwoz added.  
“That, too.”  
Charlotte glanced at the hall with the bathroom, knowing they didn’t have long to talk before Ray got back. The situation was difficult, and Henry was right; the truth was not an option. Mr. and Mrs. Hart were not geniuses, but even they would question the odd reality of the situation. The same could be said for all adults in Swellview; there was not one who was both smart and sensible. Everyone from the teachers to the police was a bit dull. Who in their right mind would make it illegal to wear more than two hats anyways?  
Charlotte glanced back once more before stating, “I have a plan.”

“What do you mean there’s a random orphan running around with no place to stay because his last set of foster parents got arrested for wearing 6 hats and robbing a bank with squirt guns?”  
“Well, he hasn’t been running around, exactly. His foster parents were Jasper’s mom’s cousin’s daughter, or something, but Jasper’s family won’t take him because--”  
“Jasper’s parents hate kids, we know.”  
“Yeah! And Charlotte’s family can’t take him because of that whole issue with--”  
“We don’t care.”  
“What?”  
Jake sighed. “We don’t care. He can stay in your room as long as he behaves and cleans up after himself. But, you know, since he’s going to be staying here, for..?”  
“At least 6 months.”  
“Wha--?” He sighs again. “Fine. If he’s going to be here for 6 months, we should at least know his name.”  
“Colby,” Ray blurted out, a little louder than he meant to. “My name is Colby,” he said, quieter this time.  
“Yeah, Colby… Kale. Colby Kale.”  
“Alright. Nice to meet you, Colby.”

The next day was a Saturday, and the last thing Schwoz wanted to be doing on a Saturday morning was registering Ray for high school, but yet here he was at Swellview High School. It was essential to Schwoz that Ray wasn’t here for the school talk; for as long as he’d known Ray, the man had an aversion to schools. He supposed it might’ve been because Ray was pulled out of school by 9 or 10 years old, but he didn’t know how long Ray’d felt this way. Still, Ray (or Colby, in this case) needed to seem normal enough to the neighborhood, and this was the most fitting arrangement. Plus, the city’s best superhero could stand to learn to spell.  
Making sure to note that Colby went by his middle name (Ray), the enrollment was in place, and he even had a class schedule to give Henry. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be too much of a mess.  
And if it was? Well, at least Schwoz wouldn’t have to see it. 

“So where’s Colby’s school?”  
Ray answered, “I was homeschooled by my parents.”  
“Yeah,” Henry added, “And his foster parents continued that, but right before the… incident, they had enrolled him at my school.”  
Ray made a strange noise, but Henry seemed to be the only one who noticed. He’d have to bring it up later.  
“Well, alright. That makes things easier for us. See ya, Henry,” Jake said. Henry took that as his invitation to grab Ray and head to Junk N Stuff.  
Once they were on their way, Henry said, “What was that all about?”  
“What,” Ray said, seeming more nervous than usual.  
“I mentioned that you go to my school and you made a weird noise.”  
There was an awkward pause before Ray stated, “I don’t like schools.”  
“Have you even been in a high school?”  
“No, my dad pulled me out of school two years after I got my powers.”  
Henry stopped. “Why?”  
Ray stopped, too. “I… Uh. Because he was worried about me letting other people get hurt. Or the government or something. It’s stupid, we don’t need to dwell on it.” With that, he kept walking, and Henry did as well.  
“Well, your adult self kinda sucks at spelling because of it, and there’s other stuff you should know that you didn’t. And you’re going to be a kid like this for the next 6 months, anyways, so you might as well at least get up to a 9th grade level. Plus, it’ll make people question you less.”  
Ray stops again, which is starting to get on Henry’s nerves. “Henry, what if people don’t like me?”  
“Well, you’re super cool as an adult, so I doubt that’ll be a problem.”  
“What if they find out about my powers?”  
“No one’s going to report you for being indestructible, Ray.”  
“That’s not really what I’m worried about,” he mumbled, though Henry could hardly hear it.  
“What?”  
“What if I don’t respond to the name Colby,” Ray asked, as if that was the most important thing in the world.  
“Schwoz made sure to mention it to the registration people. They’ve put that on the roster so the teachers call you Ray.”  
The young teen sighed. “I guess you’re already set on this.”  
“I am.”  
“Alright then. I guess if I have to, I will. But that’s a Monday problem anyways. Maybe what’s-his-name has good news.”

“Alright, the scan shows heightened anxiety, as expected, and of course, he’s younger, but he will age normally from here and may regain some memories as he ages. Everything is mostly unchanged... Except for this one thing… and I can’t figure out what it is.”  
“Can I have a look?”  
“Oh, sure, I can’t figure it out, but a teenage girl can--”  
“Sexual orientation!”  
Everyone now turned to stare at Charlotte. “... What?”  
With a sigh, she clarified, “The thing that Schwoz couldn’t figure out. It’s sexual orientation.”  
“My machine identifies that? I wish I would’ve known that 16 years ago!”  
“Well, what does the reading say,” Henry asked, impatient as ever.  
Schwoz took a look at the monitor again, now that he knew what the reading signified. “He’s… bisexual?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I'm working on it. This one's longer and I'm trying to update more often. Encouragement helps, so if you like the story, leave a kudos. If you have a comment, leave a comment. You know how this goes.


End file.
